On paper the issue is a fight over what to do with an industrial section of downtown San Diego called Centre City East, a jumble of warehouses, vacant lots, bus and trolley yards, and aging businesses with fences topped by barbed wire. But the fight could just as well be called a struggle for the soul of California's second-largest city. On one side is Roman Catholic Msgr.

When Cruz Bustamante was 17 he got his first taste of politics watching his father run for the Fresno County Board of Supervisors. "Everybody knew him," Bustamante says of his dad, who had spent over 20 years behind a barber's chair in rural Dinuba. "Everybody liked him." Or so they thought. For campaign purposes, the senior Cruz Bustamante billed himself as "Buzz," trying to convey a regular-guy image and, not incidentally, play down his ethnicity.

When Cruz Bustamante was 17 he got his first taste of politics watching his father run for the Fresno County Board of Supervisors. "Everybody knew him," Bustamante says of his dad, who had spent over 20 years behind a barber's chair in rural Dinuba. "Everybody liked him." Or so they thought. For campaign purposes, the senior Cruz Bustamante billed himself as "Buzz," trying to convey a regular-guy image and, not incidentally, play down his ethnicity.

On paper the issue is a fight over what to do with an industrial section of downtown San Diego called Centre City East, a jumble of warehouses, vacant lots, bus and trolley yards, and aging businesses with fences topped by barbed wire. But the fight could just as well be called a struggle for the soul of California's second-largest city. On one side is Roman Catholic Msgr.

Head bowed, eyes puffy, 15-year-old Charles Andrew Williams was formally charged with murder and attempted murder Wednesday, hours after shaken students began returning to the suburban high school that he allegedly turned into a bloody shooting gallery two days before. Dozens of Santana High School students appeared at the San Diego County Superior Court in El Cajon for Williams' arraignment.

Police are looking for a 46-year-old Ventura man in connection with a fatal shooting at a Ventura mobile home park. Raul Cervantes Viveros, who witnesses said shot and killed his neighbor Juan Vargas on Sunday, has fled the area, Sgt. Bob Anderson said. "He's still at large, and we're doing our best to locate him," Anderson said.

Two people suffered minor injuries in a collision that caused 20 gallons of swimming pool chemicals to spill on El Toro Road and shut down traffic for about an hour Tuesday morning, authorities said. A pickup truck driven by Sang You, 34, and a car driven by Juan Vargas-Palomeque, 25, collided at Aliso Park Drive and El Toro Road about 7:20 a.m., Sheriff's Lt. Bill Leonard said. You was carrying the pool chemicals in the back of his pickup.

Cecilio (El Torito) Espino of Michoacan, Mexico, takes on Henry Lopez tonight in a 10-round bantamweight (118 pounds) bout at the Country Club in Reseda. Espino, the World Boxing Council's ninth-ranked super-flyweight, is coming off an unexpected fifth-round knockout of Elio Dominguez in February at the Hollywood Palladium. On the ropes and in danger of being knocked out, Espino recovered to deliver his 21st knockout and improve his record to 24-3.

Area beaches remained closed Monday after a pipe break in Tijuana sent at least 24 million gallons of sewage pouring into the Pacific Ocean. "The Mexican officials are estimating they will fix it, maybe, by late (this) afternoon," said Dan Avera, San Diego County's deputy director of environmental health services. Signs warned swimmers of high bacteria levels at beaches from the U.S.-Mexican border north about 15 miles to North Island Naval Air Station, at the entrance to San Diego's harbor.

SACRAMENTO -- Gov. Jerry Brown on Friday called a special election to fill the 16th District state Senate seat vacated last month by Michael Rubio. The primary will be May 21 and, if no candidate wins a majority, a runoff would be held July 23. Nobody has announced a run for the seat, although hints of interest have come from Shafter City Councilwoman Fran Florez, the mother of former Sen. Dean Florez, and newly elected Assemblyman Rudy Salas Jr. (D-Bakersfield). On Friday, Salas wrote on Twitter: "Lots of discussion about future of #SD16 seat.

A man who says he has been cured of the deviant sexual fantasies that drove him to assault hundreds of male hitchhikers in the 1960s and '70s can be released from a mental hospital, a judge ruled Monday. Douglas Badger, 63, testified during his three-week trial that he can now suppress his fantasies. He told Superior Court Judge David Gill that he transformed himself through a treatment program at Atascadero State Hospital, where he has been confined for eight years.

California has long been the ultimate melting pot, with the majority of its population coming from outside the state. Dust Bowl emigres, Asian railroad workers, high-tech entrepreneurs, Mexican laborers and war refugees from around the globe flocked to California. The majority migrant population filled the state's myriad labor needs, challenged the schools with a cacophony of new languages and roiled its politics with immigration debates. But, in a dramatic demographic shift, California's narrative as the nation's quintessential immigrant state is giving way to a new reality.